Haritha Saranga

 What would be the impact of an additional engineer in IIMB’s

IT Help Desk, on their response time to PGP-1 students?

 What is the probability that when you go for lunch the queue
will be short?

 How will an additional runway at your city airport reduce

aircraft waiting time?

 How many ICU beds and ventilators should hospitals in a city

like Mumbai invest in to reduce mortality rate?
 Process
Information Management
Queues
structure
Network of
Inputs Activities and Buffers Outputs
Flow units Goods
(customers, data, Services
material, cash, etc.)

Labor & Capital

Resources
 Service System
Servers
Queue or
Customer Waiting Line
Arrivals Exit
 Calling
Population
Arrivals
Waiting Line Server Served
customers

◦ Nature of calling Population

◦ Arrival Characteristics
◦ Waiting-Line Characteristics
◦ Service Facility Characteristics
◦ Queue’s Performance Measures
 Population Source Cases to be
Considered are
highlighted in red

Finite Infinite
Example: Number Example: Number
of machines of people waiting
needing repair for tickets in front
when a company of Chinnaswami
only has ten stadium
machines.
◦ join the queue,
and wait until served

◦ balk; refuse to
No Way!

join the line

BALK

No Way!
◦ renege; leave the line

RENEGE
 Arrival Rate
◦ Poisson arrival rate
◦ General stochastic distribution
◦ Deterministic arrival rate

 Arrival Pattern
◦ Single
◦ Batch
 Calling
Population
Arrivals
Waiting Line Server Served
customers

 Length of the queue

 Limited
 Unlimited

 Service priority
 FCFS
 SPT
 Priority
 Service
Pattern

Constant Variable
Example: Rides in Example: Patients
Disneyland. visiting a doctor
 Service time distribution
 exponential
 negative exponential
 Constant Waiting Line Server Server
 General stochastic

 Number of channels or servers (service workstations)

 single Server
 multiple

 Number of stages (phases) in service system

 single
 multiple

 Possibility of Re-service
Single-server, single-stage ATM Machine

Waiting line Server

Multiple-servers, single-stage

Servers
Single-server, multi-stage

Waiting line Servers

Multiple-servers, multi-stage

Waiting line
Servers
 Single Multi
stage stage

One-person
Single Server Car wash
barber shop

Bank tellers’ Hospital

Multi Server
windows admissions
Customer Arrival Departure Time in
Number Time Time System 10
9
1 0 5 5
8
2 4 10 6

Customer Number
7
3 8 15 7
6
4 12 20 8 5
5 16 25 9 4
6 20 30 10 3

7 24 35 11 2
1
8 28 40 12
9 32 45 13 0 10 20 30 40 50

10 36 50 14 Time

What is the queue size?

What is the capacity utilization?
Customer Arrival Departure Time in
Number Time Time System 10
1 0 5 5 9

2 6 11 5 8

Customer Number
7
3 12 17 5
6
4 18 23 5
5
5 24 29 5 4
6 30 35 5 3
7 36 41 5 2

8 42 47 5 1

9 48 53 5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60

10 54 59 5 Time

What is the queue size?

What is the capacity utilization?
 10
Customer Arrival Processing Time in
9
Number Time Time System
8
1 0 7 7 7

Customer
2 10 1 1 6

5
3 20 7 7 4

4 22 2 7 3

2
5 32 8 8
1
6 33 7 14 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Time
7 36 4 15 Queue Fluctuation
8 43 8 16
4

9 52 5 12
3
10 54 1 11
Number

What is the queue size? 1

What is the capacity utilization?
0
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64
Time
Customer Arrival Processing Time in
Number Time Time System
10
1 0 8 8
9
2 10 8 8
8
3 20 2 2
7
4 22 7 7 6
5 32 1 1 5
6 33 1 1 4
7 36 7 7 3
8 43 7 7 2
9 52 4 4 1
10 54 5 7
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

What is the queue size?

What is the capacity utilization?
 If inter-arrival and processing times are constant,
queues will build up if and only if the arrival rate
is greater than the processing rate
 If there is (unsynchronized) variability in inter-
arrival and/or processing times, queues will build
up even if the average arrival rate is less than the
average processing rate
 If variability in interarrival and processing times
can be synchronized (correlated), queues and
waiting times can be reduced
 Revenue
◦ Throughput Rate
◦ Abandonment Rate
◦ Blocking Rate
 Cost
◦ Capacity utilization
◦ Number in queue / in system
 Customer service
◦ Waiting Time in queue /in system
 Note that, for all the formulae and
computations that follow, we assume
utilization < 1.

 Systems where utilization is more than 100%

are unstable.
 Notation for Single stage, Multi-server Service System

No. of customers being served, Ip

Arrival Rate Ri Process Rate Rp

Servers
Queue Length, Ii

No. of customers in the system, I = Ii + Ip

 Queue Length Formula for a Single Server Queue
Flow rate Average flow
time T
Inventory
Ri waiting Ii R
Inflow Outflow

Increasing
Variability
Entry to system Begin Service Departure

No. of Flow units in queue Ii No. being served Ip Theoretical Flow Time

Flow Time T=Ti+ Tp

Utilization 100%

Queue Length Formula for a single server

2
and
Variability factor

Utilization factor
Queue Length Formula for a Multiple Server Queue
Inventory
in service Ip

Ri Inventory
waiting Ii R = min(Ri , Rp)
Inflow Outflow
Flow rate

Entry to system Begin Service Departure

Flow units in queue Ii No. being served Ip

Flow Time T=Ti+ Tp

Queue Length Formula for Multiple (c) Servers

Approach for Queuing Analysis

1. Collect the following data:

- number of servers, c
- activity time, Tp
- interarrival time, 1/Ri
- coefficient of variation for interarrival (Ci ) and processing time (Cp )

2. Compute utilization: u = Ri / Rp
Compute Ci = σi / µi and Cp = σp / µp , where σ and µ are the standard
deviation and mean of the distribution respectively

3. Compute expected no. of flow units waiting in the Queue

4. Based on Ii, we can compute the remaining performance measures as

Throughput rate = R = min (Ri, Rp) = Ri (since u<1)
Time in the queue=Ti=Ii/R
Time in the system = T = Ti + Tp
Inventory in service Ip=c*u
Inventory in the system I=Ii + Ip
 m

P
n =0
n
 The teller facility of a bank has a one-man operation at present.
Customers arrive at the bank at the rate of one every 4 minutes
to use the teller facility. The service time varies randomly across
customers on account of some parameters. However, based on
the observations in the past, it has been found that the teller
takes on an average 3 minutes to serve an arriving customer.
The inter arrival times and the service times follow exponential
distribution.

1. Assess the various operational performance measures for the teller

facility.

2. What is the probability that there are at most three customers in

front of the teller counter?

3. Of late the bank officials notice that the arrival rate has increased to
one every three and a half minutes. What is the impact of this
change in the arrival rate? Do you have any observation to make?
 Arrival rate = Arrival rate =
15 per hour 17.143 per hour

Utilisation of the teller facility 75% 85.7%

Avg. number of customers in 2.25 5.14
waiting line

Avg. number of customers in 3.00 6.00

the system

Average time a customer 9 minutes 18 minutes

spends waiting in line

Average time a customer 12 minutes 21 minutes

spends in the system
Customers send emails to a help desk of an online retailer every 2
minutes, on average, and the standard deviation of the inter-arrival time
is also 2 minutes. The online retailer has three employees answering
emails. It takes on average 4 minutes to write a response email. The
standard deviation of the service times is 2 minutes.

Estimate the average customer wait before being served.

 High utilization
Low cost of operation
Poor service
Waiting Time

Low utilization
High cost of operation
Good service

0 100%
Utilization (u)
Expected costs

Total cost

Service
cost

Waiting Costs

0 Level of service
Independent Resources Waiting
Time Ti
2x(c=1)
70.00
c=1
60.00

50.00

40.00
c=2
30.00

20.00
c=5
Pooled Resources 10.00 c=10
(c=2)
0.00
60% 65% 70% 75% 80% 85% 90% 95%
Utilization u
Implications:
+ balanced utilization

+ Shorter waiting time (pooled safety capacity)

- If the service requirements are heterogeneous,

dedicated servers are better
 Plan for regular arrival patterns

◦ Reduce prices during Off-peak hours

◦ Choose more reliable suppliers
◦ Use Appointments
◦ Revenue Management Techniques

 Standardize service
◦ Standard products
◦ Limited Product Mix
◦ Create dedicated Cells (Manzana)
 Manage Capacity
 Increase the Capacity during peak hours
 Pool available capacity across different tasks
 Use flexible labour
 Use forecasting techniques to schedule capacity

 Manage Demand
 Divert demand to off-peak periods
 Increase price during peak seasons
 Give discounts during off-peak seasons
 Occupied time
feels shorter
than
unoccupied
Solo waits feel time People want to
longer than get started as
group waits soon as possible

The more
valuable the Principle of
service, the Anxiety makes
longer the
Waiting Time waits seem
longer
customer will
wait
Psychology

Uncertain
Unfair waits
waits feel
feel longer
longer than
than equitable
known and
waits Unexplained finite waits
waits feel
longer than
explained
waits
1. Determine an acceptable waiting time for
your customers

2. Try to divert your customer’s attention

when waiting

3. Inform your customers of what to expect

4. Keep employees not serving the customers

out of sight

5. Segment customers
6. Train your servers to be friendly

7. Encourage customers to come during the

slack periods

8. Take a long-term perspective towards

getting rid of the queues